It is Possible to Wash a Vehicle Too Much??

Bri26 said:
Do you know how hard the water is that your using to rinse the salt off? It could be a factor.
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Not sure. I never thought of that. It's just well water but drinkable.

I usually use a heated water source, not sure if that makes a difference or not??
 
s_ribs said:
Replacing calipers every 3 years seems excessive, as you noted. Curious if you have a picture of them or could you explain further on why you are replacing them. I.e. you really can't stand to see rust, or are they actually seized and not working correctly after 3 years? We have a Honda and it also has rusty calipers but they work just fine so I'm not replacing them.

I have noticed that non-OE parts often (not always) rust quicker than factory parts. Example- stock axles on our Honda didn't have a spec of rust on them at 150k miles but the aftermarket replacements were covered in rust within a year. German cars seem to do MUCH better with rust.
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I'm no expert, but I've heard different sources of steel handle rust much differently. Heard the cheap China stuff is the worst. Some vehicle makes seem to be much more prone to rust than others and I speculate this is why.

The calipers are not seized but starting to. The rotors are bad. They are more than just rusty, they have heavy corrosion.

I also have an older Accord I've only driven during non-salt months for the last 9 years and I can't even remember the last time I needed new calipers on that car... at least 6-7+ years and that car sees much more annual mileage than my winter car.
 
BLM said:
I can't imagine removing the ice melting chemicals via rinsing is causing your problems. It is more likely that the materials in the brake components are more likely to be the issue. Otherwise all the components of the Accord undercarriage would show the same condition.
If you don't feel the rinse water is enough then I would get some cleaning vinegar from Dollar Tree and put that (diluted) into a foaming pump sprayer and use that to neutralize the residue on your undercarriage/ brake components.

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The entire undercarriage is heavily corroded. BUT I have not had to replace suspension parts or other parts any more noticeably frequently like the brakes.
 
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Desertnate said:
Why are you replacing the calipers, rotors and pads? Is it because they look bad, or is there actual structural issues in the parts? I've owned cars that had some pretty nasty looking components because of their exposure to all the elements, to include road salt, but they have never had any structural or performance issues. I remember our Toyota's calipers really looked bad after their first winter and I could never get them to look clean again, but they worked fine for another 250K miles. I've had plenty of brake rotors that got pretty rusty around the hub area, but were perfectly sound.

If the are failing that quickly, I'd take a hard look at the quality of the parts too. There is no way any of those components should be failing that quickly despite being subjected to harsh winter conditions. I wouldn't trust them in the summer, let alone the winter.

For a wash routine, I typically wait for the weather to get above/at freezing and simply run it though the touchless with an underbody spray. This works out to be about once a month. The cars do get dirty, but I don't have to worry about water freezing in a place it shouldn't and I've never had any serious corrosion issues; including my daughter's 13 year old Honda Fit.
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I'm going to pay more attention to part brands from here forward.

Where I'm at... it might not get above freezing for weeks at a time and when it does the local touchless wash has a longer line than WalMart on Black Friday :)
 
Sleper said:
Question do you service the brakes once a year. Which is take them appart and clean up all moving or sliding areas where the pads move on the calipers. If you do not there is a chance that you are experiencing premature failure to brakes sticking and wearing prematurily. Just a thought good luck
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I do not service them annually. I've never done this to any vehicle... on my vehicles I only drive during non-salt months, I have had zero brake issues and one of them is a 25 year old Accord with over 300,000 miles.
 
Does sound like your frequent wash routine is doing more harm than good. You are bringing more moisture to the equation.

Try powerstop pads and rotors. Better than oem in my opinion. Zinc coated rotors so only will surface rust wheee the pad touches rotor. And the pads are ceramic pads = minimal brake dust.

Just dont forget to bed the brakes.

Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk
 
I like the Powerstop kits. Heard nothing but good things about them. The Centric rotors you can get from Tire Rack are another option. They are pretty reasonably priced and the hub area is coated/painted/powder coated too to prevent corrosion.
 
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